YOUR RESPONSES

Lynda Stallworth - Oct '06
Brian,

Will you ever have prints to sell of the Flax Dam painting, or do other paintings based on the photograph? My grandmother often spoke of working with her sisters in the flax fields where she was raised in Dunnamanagh (Donemana), Co. Tyrone, so I would love to have a print in honor of her memory.

Last June I spent two weeks in a cottage in Dunseverick, in the midst of that spell of glorious weather, and plan to return next summer. It's my favourite place in the world!

Regards,

Lynda Stallworth
Marietta, Georgia, USA

Lawrence Hiller - 18 October '04
I was very interested to read your article on the flax dam as I am seeking information on lint holes. I live in the Ballynahinch area of County Down and have what I believe is a lint hole running across the bottom of my garden. It creates a water table problem in the garden and any information on their construction would be helpful in determining how to address the problem. I do not want to do away with it but I do need to reduce the water table level somewhat. Where can I get the relevant information?
Thank you.

Peter Boyle - August 2004
Are there any more sketches, and are they available?

Brian Willis - 24 April '04
Hello Sue,
Glad you liked my article about painting the Flax Dam. Thanks for pointing out Seamus Heaney's "Death of a Naturalist" poem. Did you see he refers to sods of earth being used to hold the flax underwater? Whereas here on the north coast of Antrim they used boulders as depicted in my painting.
Then there was the smell that Heaney also mentions. Everyone talks about the smell. People tell me that as you approached practically any village in Northern Ireland you could smell the flax dams. Hopefully, one day we will all have "Smellyvision" on our web browsers and we too will be able to relive that smell of a bygone era.
Smell plays such an important part of our memories doesn't it? My most memorable smell is paraffin. Every time I smell paraffin I am transported to a little parlour in my grandmother's thatch-roofed cottage with the paraffin lamp hissing away on the red cloth-covered table. Grandmother, the cottage and the paraffin lamp now sadly all gone.

Sue Knowles - 22 April '04

This has helped me to understand the poem "Death of a Naturalist" by Seamus Heaney.
Many thanks. It has been very interesting to read.

"The Flax Dam at Dunseverick" Original 8ft x 3ft Acrylics on board ..Return to Flax Crop Go to second page of Flax Dam